Technology

NYPD Still Using Typewriters

July 17, 2009

NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne confirmed the department's continued, if limited, use of the 20th-century writing devices, explaining that they're mainly used for filling out property vouchers -- forms that officers must file when they seize items during case investigations. The typewriters also are retained in case a technological meltdown disables the NYPD's computers, he said.

The vintage typing machines do not come cheap.

Public records show that the city signed a $432,900 contract for typewriter maintenance with Afax Business Machines in 2008, as well as a $99,570 contract with that company in 2009. Typewriter company Swintec received a $982,269 contract from the city in 2007.

I've been in law enforcement for nearly three decades, and early on I realized that good enough is never good enough. Whether it's the vehicle you drive, the reports you write, or the equipment you use, striving for the best almost always brings about the optimal outcome. For me, that philosophy carries through to everything I do and everything I use...

"Drone technology will give our cops and their incident commanders an opportunity to see what they're getting into before they go into harm's way," NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan said Tuesday. "This can now get us a lot closer into areas that a helicopter wouldn't be able to get into.”